THERE'S a question to ask as we rub our hands in anticipation now that Arsenal have livened up the top of the Premier League table. What took Arsene Wenger so long?

After years of sending teams out to pass, pass, pass, the Arsenal manager discovered the virtues of discipline, determination and (this one's the shock) defending.

Instead of having eight or so men attempting one-twos in and around the Manchester City area, Arsenal were happy to camp in their own territory at the weekend.

Per Mertersaker suddenly looked like a German World Cup centre-back, Santi Carzola impersonated a holding midfield player, and Wenger himself behaved like George Graham.

But why now? Why not years ago? We'll probably never know whether there was a training-ground revelation for Wenger, but Chelsea's Jose Mourinho, football's arch-pragmatist, must have applauded. And Sam Allardyce will have smiled to himself.

You could toast bread on the self-satisfied glow emanating from Allardyce when his West Ham team battered Hull by adopting a more direct approach in the second half.

Allardyce said: "All this tippy-tappy stuff everybody keeps going on about being the right way to play football is a load of b******s."

The foreign for tippy-tappy is tiki-taka. It is football based on possession, on exchanging short passes at speed, mesmerising opponents and passing them to submission.

It was perfected by Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, personified by Lionel Messi, and copied by Spain. And in England, Cesc Fabregas, a product of Barcelona, was at the hub of Arsenal's slick version of the system.

The development of this style was helped by the reinterpretation of the offside law in 2005.

A player was only "interfering with play" if he touched the ball, and the concept of different phases of play was introduced. Defenders were bewildered. Forwards just wouldn't stand still.

It is football based on possession, on exchanging short passes at speed, mesmerising opponents and passing them to submission

But neither does the game, and since last season there has been considerable debate about whether tiki-taka is dead.

It was certainly hurt badly when Guardiola's Bayern Munich were thrashed by Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, and wounded severely when Spain lost their first two games in the 2014 World Cup and were dumped out of their group.

Now Messi might leave Barcelona, which would be a truly seismic shift.

Three things have happened already. The first is that a group of superb players have grown older together. It happens.

And because it happened to Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Co, it was inevitable that Barcelona and Spain would slip from their pedestal.

But alongside this natural decline, opponents were adapting to the offside law and also learning how to counter tiki-taka with patient defending and rapid counter-attacking.

Mourinho showed the way by beating Barca with Inter Milan in the 2010 Champions League, and as others cottoned on, Barca and Spain were forced, more and more, to pass the ball sideways.

Now, it seems, even Wenger has accepted the game has changed, and has changed Arsenal's game.

His tactics at the Etihad did seem to represent a watershed. Perhaps all that fancy passing was just a passing fancy.

Yet if tiki-taka, tippy-tappy really is dead, there will be many mourners. It was a thing of beauty. It could lift you off your seat and make you gasp.

But the Arsenal version was a fragile beauty, with many moments of frustration for players and spectators as Wenger's men chose to pass one more time instead of blooming shooting.

Now things could get really interesting. It's just a shame we have to put up with Allardyce being so smug.

THIERRY HENRY'S debut as a Sky pundit was as smooth as the man himself.

But the best analysis, consistently, comes from his new team-mate Gary Neville, who was co-commentator for Manchester City's defeat by Arsenal before joining Henry and Graeme Souness in the comfy seats for the post-match discussion.